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Dartmouth’s Ben Russell has captured a spot in the World Sprint Canoe Championships in Germany later this summer.

Russell and his partner from Quebec, Gabriel Beauchesne-Sévigny won the C-2, 1,000-metre race Sunday morning at the final selection event in Welland, Ont.

It was a close race with a dramatic finish that sent Russell's crew into the water.

"Well we’re both exhausted and we shot our boat, which is just kind of throwing ourselves to the back of the boat to give one last push. We ended up taking a swim, we fell out of the boat, after we crossed the line thankfully and just waited for the safety boat to take us and just tried to catch our breath for the next 15 minutes," he said.

It wasn't until they were picked up by a rescue boat and reached shore that they were sure they had won.

Now the team will begin preparing for what they hope will be a similar result at worlds.

"We’re a really strong crew, we’ve had great results so far. The world cup’s an indicator that we should be right there and we’re going to try and have our best race and try to get on that podium," said Russell.